To most people, the end of July is a time of the year when the only thing on their minds is what they’re doing for their summer holidays. While that subject is very much in the minds of many of the senior management team at Bite, we have also been focused on completing our latest financial year and then subsequently planning for the start of our new one. Needless to say, given the (slowly) improving global economy we’re feeling much more positive about prospects for growth in the next 12 months than perhaps we were last year!
While it's impossible to see into the future, could this year bring a new dawn for our industry?
As I look forward, I think there are four key challenges that Bite (and in truth, the whole communications industry) faces during the next 12 months and our success will clearly be dependent on our ability to meet these challenges;
- Talent will become scarce again and will head towards those organisations which provide the right mix of culture, challenge and reward. We’ve started seeing it already, but as the economy picks up, the scramble for talent will only become more ferocious. Over the past few years in-house departments have been seen as safe havens by many communicators and it’s likely that agency side will start to look more attractive again as agencies get back into growth mode. One upshot of this could be that more budgets will also go external as companies struggle to staff programmes internally
- Silos within marketing departments will continue to erode. I had dinner recently with the CMO of a large B2B software company and he admitted that he only saw marketing challenges (mostly web based) in ‘general’ terms. What he meant by this was that he identified specific marketing tasks that he needed help with and then was not bothered which kind of agency answered that challenge for him; all he cared about was who understood the challenge the best and had the strongest response to meet it. Obviously this is both an opportunity and a threat for us
- Budgets will improve, but they’ll be harder to find. Following on from the last point, as silos break down, traditional budget structures will also change. It’ll be down to us to go and find the right budget holders and to then sell in the right services
- Other agency disciplines will get ever more aggressive in de-positioning communications agencies. Yes, I know I’m biased but I truly think we’re on the edge of a golden age for communications; as content becomes ever more important, we’re best placed to help clients create compelling content which will engage and influence their key target audiences. The Ad guys in particular have had it their own way for too long. I think they know they’ve got a real fight on their hands and I don’t expect them to go down meekly…
Based on the four challenges above (and the myriad others that will crop up during the next 12 months), our next financial year is certainly going to be an interesting one. What’s obvious is that change will be the only constant. But through change comes opportunity. And it’s this that makes the future look so exciting.
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